3304 Shop Window Hermès Japan, 2013

A Soft Gust Of Wind, i.c.w. Anke Weiss January 24th until March 19th, 2013

The sports theme of the Maison Hermès window display by Studio Makkink & Bey merges softness and the act of making to connect with the skillfully made fashion of Hermès. This edition of Hermès' street theater is a narrative featuring soft textile, floating movements, whirlwinds, a Japanese master and a mastermind sewing an imaginary landscape handcrafted from woolen felt. The title 'A Soft Gust Of Wind' is a near quote of a famous Japanese wood print by master Hokusai.

The windy scene in the window display on the right shows a translation of the graceful movement of a scarf whirling on a gust of wind. The window display stages the Hermès heavily decorated scarf as a kite up in the air with the wind as competing force.The backdrop is a scenery that is stitched onto wool felt with trees and figures plodding through it. The drawing is based on an illustration with the title 'A Sudden Gust of Wind' by the well known Japanese printmaker Hokusai, an illustration of people who struggle as they seem to have been caught off guard by a whirlwind that tries to rid them of their papers, hats and scarfs.While in the stormy scene on the right everything is about defying a meteorically changing force, on the left there's a figure calmly engineering the world to be, with a sewing machine. He's sewing a soft universe. The illustrations are drawn with black yarn that is cut off loosely to create a sort of ruffled effect with the fluttering thread. Behind the artisan there is a poster that illustrates things related to meteorology: a classification of clouds, natural elements, a weathervane, stars, the moon and the sun.